Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Great little article on Siri's everyday uses. Many of these I've already been using myself and look forward to incorporating more of them into my life.

Siri may seem off-putting at first, but it is a super handy tool in that you don't need to use your hands to use it. This often results in quicker input of ideas or reminders. This is important because that extra second or two that it takes to pull my phone out, find the right app and type in the reminder or idea can deter me from doing so. I'll think "whatever, I'll probably remember" or "meh. not worth it" and move on with my day.

The only discomfort I have with the whole procedure is talking to my phone with other people around, so I just avoid doing that. I'll use Siri non-stop when I'm driving alone or walking down the street with headphones, but I tend to just stick to good ol' typing when I'm in the company of others. I probably won't be able to hack Google Glass either.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

I rememberd an old trick I learned when I played more desktop games. Some mice have little plates in them to weigh the device down a bit. Turns out you can extract them and have a lighter, often smoother experience.

On top of that, the last time I took mine apart, I lost a spring in the click-wheel mechanism. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise which I repeated (voluntarily this time) to get the resulting effect. When you scroll the wheel, there is no more resistance or clicking sound to the motion. Once again, a smoother and lighter experience.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I dove into the Rails source code for the first time ever today. Fixed an issue. It was pretty exciting.

I updated to Ruby 2.0 yesterday, almost immediately after it came out. I was lucky enough to be in a position where I didn't have anything to risk and I figured it would be a fun challenge to get through. I was right and there were a few speed bumps. Today I find that the .dup method is returning an exception.

Didn't really have the balls to do the whole git merging of this code yet and took it as an opportunity to seek the problem lines manually. Got a glimpse of the directory structure of the Rails source code and had a first glance at the innards. Onwards and upwards from here.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Here's a conversation I had with Boris earlier today. Just some thoughts on the new iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S3. Not comprehensive. Not every point is mentioned but I do hit a few of the ones that matter to me. Feel free to correct me and in general share your thoughts on the topic.

============================================

Boris: what do you think of
iphone 5? do you think i should get it
over the galaxy 3?

Boris: i mean after the
release of all the info

Dmitriy Markus: idk. it depends on who you are and ur needs.Dmitriy Markus: ill tell u why im
going to get it. doesn’t mean u should

Boris: ok go

Dmitriy Markus: apple has
the most amazing synergy on the market

Dmitriy Markus: between
their products

Dmitriy Markus: the ipad,
the macbook, and the iphone all work in an ever improving synchronicity. which
i absolutely love

Dmitriy Markus: also my
apple tv is tits and i love being able to stream to it from a phone

Dmitriy Markus: so that’s 1.
Synergy

Dmitriy Markus: 2nd

Dmitriy Markus: the main
selling point of the gs3 to me is the openness and customization.

Dmitriy Markus: there are
hundreds of menus and loaders, launchers,
themes, skins, widgets, icon packs and mad fucking shit to customize ur phone
to fit perfectly for every little need
and want

Dmitriy Markus: i used to be into
that. i used to get mad extensions for firefox and chrome and customize every
piece of software i own.

Boris: yeah i did too. but i
stopped

Dmitriy Markus: nowadays.. i
don’t want to do that. i really dont want to do that. I could see why others
would, but im just in a different place in my life.

Dmitriy Markus: also, with
that customization u open urself up to little issues. Things pile up over time,
conflicts arise, crashes, glitches.

Dmitriy Markus: its just
going to happen more because the os is open.

Dmitriy Markus: some poeple
dont care about that and i dont judge them for it. It’s a cost/benefit.

Dmitriy Markus: id rather
have my phone just always work. Which it does.

Boris: the one thing i
hated about android is the constant crashing

Boris: the
only thing

Dmitriy Markus: u should look into
reviews of the gs3, it might crash a lot less. im sure they’re improving

Dmitriy Markus: however..
they’re very open with their apps, so
developers get careless and leave lots
of holes and bugs.

Dmitriy Markus: so ure going
to see crashes more than on ios no matter what even if they improve the
underlying os

Dmitriy Markus: for me
personaly, id rather not have to deal with that

Dmitriy Markus: i hate
little glitches. Id rather sacrifice some functionality or customization. Not all
people would.

Dmitriy Markus: I hate having
to press a button 3 times for it to register. i really dont want to do that

Dmitriy Markus: on iphone.
99% of the actions I do register with the phone and it responds accordingly,
exactly how I thought it would. thats
only going to improve with the new processor
in the iphone5.

Boris: the one thing i hate,
i gotta tell you, is when you find a person from the phone book and call them,
and then need to make another call 5 hours later, it doesnt open the phone book
when you click contacts, but that person entry in the phone book

Dmitriy Markus: on an
iphone?

Boris: yeah

Dmitriy Markus: yea. its not
a perfect phone. I could list other annoyances and grievances

Dmitriy Markus: there are
going to be issues with both

Dmitriy Markus: like I said,
its a cost / benefit. id rather press
'favorites' and have to find the new person i want to call again

Dmitriy Markus: and
honestly.. touching ur phone for basic tasks is a waste of time.

Dmitriy Markus: i almost
never do it. i press a button on my headphones and say 'call jenny' or 'call
mom'

Dmitriy Markus: so i dont
even think about that

Dmitriy Markus: with siri
its going to be even easier and the voice
recognition is even better

Boris: i should get up on voice
recognition

Dmitriy Markus: yea. its
great

Dmitriy Markus: its one of
the things im most hyped about

Dmitriy Markus: I mean.. gs3
has it too so that’s not a point of contention

Dmitriy Markus: so anyway..
there’s 1. synergy.
2. dont have to customize much and dont feel the need to
3. less crashes due to less freedom for developers

Dmitriy Markus: and there’s
an asterisk there

Dmitriy Markus: this DOES
NOT mean apps are worse. quite the opposite. apps are usually better on iphones

Dmitriy Markus: developers
are forced to be more creative and more careful. they’re forced to create a better crafted
product.

Dmitriy Markus: u see
countless apps being released for ios then being ported to android

Dmitriy Markus: but not as
much in reverse

Boris: yah

Dmitriy Markus: so this
whole 'apple limits their developers'' argument is kind of meaningless. Because
if it that was truly a problem, ud see apps suffer

Boris: ok im gonna preorder
it today

Dmitriy Markus: wait wait.
let me finish

Boris: fiiiiine

Dmitriy Markus: then there
are points 4 and 5 which can be seen as one

Dmitriy Markus: 4 is ergonomics

Dmitriy Markus: yes.. all
android makers are suddenly trying to make their phone fuckin huge and everyone
wants a tv screen in their pocket and is dying for mini tablets and huge phones

Dmitriy Markus: i prefer
apple’s approach. they made the phone taller but not wider for a reason: so u could use it with one hand

Dmitriy Markus:
one thumb. pretty much everything u want to do u can do with one thumb comfortably

Dmitriy Markus: thats
important and often overlooked by designers, engineers and consumers

Dmitriy Markus: android users
are too excited about how many buttons options and features there are to press
and utilize to notice that they have to focus on their phone more

Dmitriy Markus: they have to
hold it with one hand and use the other as a stylus

Dmitriy Markus: they have to
look at the phone more

Dmitriy Markus: i drive. So I
need a phone like the iphone so i can do
shit on my phone.

Dmitriy Markus: anythign i
want. while driving. with one hand.
Without straining. Dmitriy Markus : now if you bring
this point up to an android user they’ll instantly pull out their phone, grab
it with one hand and reach for the opposite corner with their thumb. Demonstrating
how clearly wrong I am. But watch people when they’re on autopilot, performing
multiple tasks. Their hand just will not want to make that reach and it’ll just
make more sense intuitively to use your second hand. Sure, some iphone users will do this too. But
one phone is still more conducive to one handed workflow than the other.

Dmitriy Markus: i dont need a huge
phone. ive never watched a movie on my phone and never will

Dmitriy Markus: if u like watching
videos then android is more for u. that’s
another point for them

Dmitriy Markus: if u like
not having to be totally engrossed in ur phone anytime u want to do something thats
a point for apple

Dmitriy Markus: not that there’s
anything wrong wth that. some people love their gadgets and that’s what they
want

Dmitriy Markus: and now
final point 5

Dmitriy Markus: which is the
most nuanced and really requires a good amount of handling of both phones to
understand.

Dmitriy Markus: the design

Dmitriy Markus: the iphone
is just sexy, sleek and pleasant

Dmitriy Markus: i find it to
be a pleasure to use, to hold , to place down. It looks good, it feels good. It’s
a joy to use. i took off the case off my
phone. it was a big transition in my life, letting go of that fear of dropping
it.

Dmitriy Markus: now, if u anticipate
dropping and smashing ur phone: gs3 is the way to go

Dmitriy Markus: its probably
more durable

Dmitriy Markus: slightly

Dmitriy Markus: but the
iphone is surprisingly strong. (Watch some
endurance tests on youtube)

Dmitriy Markus: i do relish in the joy of using my phone how it was designed.

Dmitriy Markus: that really
subtle feeling where u feel like ure
interacting with an organic thing instead of a gadget.

Dmitriy Markus: the feel of the phone and the os, is just a little
smoother, a litttle sleeker, a little
more rounded. (that’s changing over time so keep an eye out on android anyway)

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Here is a torrent link to the movie, War On Kids. I recommend everyone downloads and watches this movie.

Along with being quite entertaining, the movie is also an eye opener for those of us who haven't been in the public school system for a while. Apparently things haven't changed too much, but security and student medication are on the rise. The film discusses the effectiveness of cameras, metal detectors, police officers, medication, strict discipline and several other tactics we use as a country to ensure our kids get the best education.

The most interesting part of the movie for me was when the idea of compulsory public education was put into question as a whole. Overall, a pretty negative picture is painted. Can't say I'm surprised. I've been an advocate of privatizing the educational system ever since I could conceive of such a thing.

I remember in particular having conversations with some of my friends and heard the idea of even stricter even more standardized education being put forth. So for them, here's an interesting look at the way we currently indoctrinate our youth and the potential consequences of such a system being more rigorous.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Here's a pretty cheesy, yet though provoking movie from the 70's that Milton Friedman was involved with. It's very short,fun to watch and has a lot of interesting ideas put out there. I particularly enjoyed seeing how the same ideas were discussed decades ago and the context in which the conversations take place is something to take note of (meaning: what the characters are literally doing. Although you are free to examine the societal and economic context of those times as well). The movie is called the Incredible Bread Machine, which will be described at the end.

My favorite things about the presentations that I've seen Milton Friedman be involved with is that more than one side of all the arguments is given a voice. After the movie there are interviews critiquing the movie and are a must watch.

Here is the full presentation in black and white. Right under, I posted the movie from the presentation in color so you can watch the intro, then watch the movie in color and then fast forward to the interviews.

Care to discuss Adam's extreme hatred of things in the context of reality? The merits or downfalls of his $5.00 gas plan? Or care just to share about the great times you've had listening to the show? Make sure you get back to me.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

INTRODUCTION Thanks to this article about his son, my curiosity with Charles Manson peaked this week. I've been doing some research on him and trying to remember why he's in jail and all that and I came across some really interesting stuff. Here I am sharing...Let's start with a brief overview from the universe's most trusted source. Here.

If you didn't bother reading too much of it. Here's an important fact to consider for those of you who may not be familiar with the case. Charles Manson never actually killed anyone.

Moving on to, hilarious highlights

A QUESTION

AN ANSWER

Hilarious? yes.

GERALDO INTERVIEW

I approached this interview and others of his with an open mind and I suggest you do the same. From all that I've seen, I can say that he does not seem crazy at all and has some really interesting ideas that come from a very unique point of view. His ability to speak, express himself and communicate his ideas across is supremely impressive when I consider that he barely knows how to read and write. Geraldo does not do a very good job of listening to his answers or asking questions for that matter.

Throughout the interview I found myself understanding where Manson is coming from fairly often. At points it was too much for my own comfort.

Here is Part 1. You can and should feel free to watch all 6 parts (part 7 is only a minute long, but a cool ending).

For those too lazy to watch the whole thing, here I have also included Part 6, which I feel has some really interesting ideas expressed in it, particularly about why there's murder (hopefully it'll entice you to watch the rest of the interview and share your thoughts. Manson seems to have a really unique perspective on the topic, but unfortunately, Geraldo is just no good at communicating and the ideas take a backseat to Geraldo's irrelevant opinions on the man he's interviewing (no idea how this guy keeps his job).

Hope everyone enjoyed all of that, thought about things... Maybe thought about something in a different way.

Please send me feedback in any way through any medium. Share your thoughts.

I've not heard too many radio shows, but I have listened to Loveline. I can confidently say it is the greatest radio show of all time anywhere. To honor everyone with the perfect dose of wisdom and entertainment, I will post Loveline episodes, every so often on Sunday nights. Moving on, here it is...